The promise of ‘restorative justice’ starts to falter under rigorous research (hechingerreport.org)

Early researchseemed promising. Developers of “restorative justice” programs described how “talking it out” yielded benefits, such as a reduction in bullying and fighting, lower suspension rates and fewer missed days of school. Sometimes, early adopters even claimed thatstudent achievement improved. But the studies tended to be small, and they tracked only what happened to students who participated in the program without comparing them to similar students who didn’t participate. No studies could prove that the restorative justice programs were causing any of the positive changes that the advocates had noticed.

By late 2016 even proponents openly worried that schools had moved too quickly. Samuel Song, co-director the National Network of Restorative School Researchers and an associate professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, penned a damning article entitled, “The Cart Before the Horse,” in which he described the “void” in the research literature and a lack of understanding of the basics, such as what the day-to-day role of school psychologists should be.

At last, more sophisticated research has been commissioned, and the results are starting to trickle in. For proponents of restorative justice, the first two studies are not especially promising with both failing to show clear benefits for these non-punitive approaches to student discipline. Academic achievement fell for some students who were exposed to restorative justice compared to students at schools who were disciplined as usual. Implementation problems were common.

In surveys, teachers at the schools that tried restorative justice said that their school climate improved. But students reported that teachers struggled more to manage classroom behavior. I wondered if disruptive behavior in the classroom might have detracted from learning time, or perhaps even worthwhile and productive restorative justice conversations ate away at precious instructional minutes. Either way, it could potentially explain why some kids’ performance suffered.

One bright side for restorative justice was that the more that Maine students reported that they personally experienced elements of restorative justice, such as discussing problems in circles, the more that student felt connected to his or her peers and the less cyber-bullying he or she experienced. This is probably obvious, but there seems to be some benefit from facilitating discussions between students at school and not rushing to punish every infraction.

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The Restorative Justice programs that integrate ACEs science are much more successful. RJ is a great tool, and it needs a foundation of ACEs science to achieve the goals that people would like it to achieve.

I would be curious to know that if the restorative programs are truly restorative. One thing that we have seen is people calling programs and practices "restorative" but they are really cutting corners and not truly adhering to the tenets of restorative justice. This can really water down the restorative nature of the practices and we then don't get the results that we would expect from honestly adhering to the processes.

Surprise. Students born into discipline by imposed consequences, and in teen years suddenly are given an option of restorative justice circles, will generally have problems adapting to that "foreign" culture of normal human capacity to learn compliance skills without rat psychology (behaviorism)---- and the huge plethora of ordering learning around imposed instead of enjoyably learning discipline.

There's a difference. But it's not going to be learned in one year of a restorative justice circle program with kids for whom it's like another planet.

Sounds like the "rigorous research" omits the teens who have been in progressive constructivist education environments since head start.

Try studying the constructivist models in operation in indigenous pedagogy, and the indigenous heritage ways of child upbringing not plagued with centuries of exposure to the fear-based behaviorist consequences of European feudalism. See Culturally Responsive and Restorative Pedagogies. ... worth checking out away from "civilized" world urban centers.

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